Aspects of Life: It All Started With a Kiss
by Tony Jasons Girl
Summary: When Cheri temporarily joins the team she and Tony are bought together for an undercover operation and in the end, makes them confront the ever growing feelings that they are getting for one another. Part one of a series of one-shots and longer stories on their life together. #Complete#


**It All Started With a Kiss **

**Chapter 1.**

All Cheri could think about as she sat there alone in her apartment was 'why in the hell did I do that for?'

She had been with Gibbs team for just a few months on temporary assignment while waiting for two members of her team to end their time at FLETC, as the new team that she was going to be on was to be the second MCRT team, and on which she was going to be earning her promotion to SFA.

Even though she was new to the team she was about to join, she had actually worked in different departments at the Navy Yard for quite a few years now. Throughout her time then, because of all the gossip and things that she'd heard, and despite having found one Anthony DiNozzo pretty sexy, she had never fallen for his charms, even though he had attempted to tempt her quite a few times, that was until now.

They were running a scheme on a couple that was thought to be involved in trafficking of drugs and also both sexes for the sex trade, so she and Tony had been put in undercover as a married couple looking to spice up their sex life.

After getting themselves in there they had gone to this party at the couple's house, which was like a show and tell of the people they were selling, along with the clients they were selling to. In this first session they were given a catalog of the all the prospective people that they could choose from that could suit their needs, and as they were looking through it all she was glad that they gave each other a squeeze of each other's hands for reassurance, because some of the profiles made them both feel sick.

From the catalog the two of them did as per the instructions they'd been given and chose six prospective people, three men, and three women, they were then told to go back again on Friday night where they would be able to watch videos of their prospective buys in interview and if they wanted any of their own questions to be included in that interview then they were going to have to get those in by 5 pm the next day.

When they both got home from the session to their pretend home, Gibbs had left orders for all surveillance on their house should be turned off and that the two of them should remove all their glasses and other things that were on their person so that for just a couple of hours they could be themselves and not their undercover personas to decompress from what they had seen. He would then be around the next morning to debrief them following that session, because as their undercover personas Tony was a private PT instructor, but also worked as a substitute PT teacher, while Cheri was a part-time admin assistant in the same office that the husband of their marks worked in on the marine base they were in, and also like Tony was also a part-time private PT instructor, because of that Gibbs was able to come and go into their house as he was supposed to be their investor in their PT business, so him coming over was them supposed to be having business meetings with them. Whereas in reality, they were really meeting up for him to give them information on their marks or for debriefs.

They were so glad of the space that they were given, seeing as both of them were both irate and sad at what they had had to see during that visit to their marks, they had both ended up taking things out on the two punch bags they had in their home gym in the home they were living in, before they were then so exhausted they were finally able to come together and talk about it over a delicious meal that Tony had cooked for the two of them.

Following their next meeting to watch the videos and see their prospective people on screen for the first time, they were also given a big handbook on the rules they had to follow, both as clients of their marks and as the 'owners' of their person. In the instructions it also included a section that had instructions for if and when they got checked out for any reason by the authorities, if they were going to be using the person they had bought as more or less as a servant alongside any other duties they were expected to perform for them, and they were caught out and about and got asked for papers. The papers they used were to be the ones that they would be given when the person left the sellers property, and they were to also say that they had employed the person as domestic help. The persons' actual real ID and papers would be kept in the custody of the sellers.

After that meeting, they then had a couple of days to work out which three people they wanted to actually meet in person, so that at the next meeting when they interviewed them, they could then decide on the person or persons that they really wanted to work for them.

As a cover, they had told their marks that they were going to be going off for that couple of days so that the two of them could get away from the pressures of their jobs, etc. so that they could make their decision about the person they wanted in peace. In reality, the two of them were going to be dropping their undercover aliases for those days, so that they could go through a debrief, but also so that they could be a part of the planning team for the op to pick up their marks.

In the end it was decided that because of them having been told that when they had made their choice, then the hand over of their person or persons would happen off sight, in other words away from their marks home, just in case the authorities did find out what they were doing and there would be no chance of them finding anything incriminating in their house, no matter how experienced the computer people were, because they had got a really good expert that could cover everything up for them so that no trace of what they were doing could be found.

The final decision that was made was that with them not wanting the marks to know that Cheri and Tony were two undercover operatives until later on, one team of agents to be lead by Gibbs with Fornell and a team of FBI agents, would turn up at the meeting place they were supposed to go to for their collection of their chosen person, while Tony and Cheri would be in charge of their own team of both NCIS and FBI agents, staking out their marks house to arrest anyone that may turn up to do work on their computers and things to hide what they had been doing.

The day had finally come for the whole op to come to an end, and as agreed Tony and Cheri left in their car that they were using as one of their cars for it and left first in case their marks were watching them, as well as talking about the shopping that they were stopping off for before they went to their meeting. While this was going on the agents that were going to be watching their marks and keeping the team updated as they prepared to stake out the place slipped in the house the back way to keep their watch, while Tony and Cheri drove to the place where their whole team was waiting.

They were meeting in a local car park, which was also crowded with cars so that the undercover car could be well hidden. There was also a motel next door and the FBI had taken a room there under another cover name, giving both Tony and Cheri the chance to change out of their undercover clothes and into their normal work clothes, along with getting vested up into their bulletproof vests. While they then waited for the call to come through to say that the teams were in position at the meeting place and that their marks had left, they put the plans out on the hood of the car and went through everything with the team one more time, before that call finally came through and they all made their move.

As they waited quietly in their car to see if anything would happen, Tony, all of a sudden said: "If I don't get the chance of saying this, I just want to say thanks for doing this with me, and thank you for having my back."

She smiled back and responded, "And thank you too for the same, even if we were just slightly thrown together for this and hadn't known each other for very long, I've enjoyed getting to know you."

"Even if you perhaps didn't like me very much at the start?"

She replies with a sigh "I did like you Tony and perhaps like you a lot more now, but I didn't know you that well even before any of this operation came up, all I knew about you was by reputation only, and from my friend Beth… who let's just say did not give a very glowing report on you. You are though a very special man Anthony DiNozzo, even if you do hide your true self away, but I have seen that person come out more and more during this time, and I would really like to get to know that side of you a bit more I think."

"And I would like to get to know you a lot better too, not just how we've been while on this, and I promise that with whatever happens with us I will never hurt you like I did Beth, just let me prove it to you."

She's just about to answer when over their earpieces a call goes out from one of the agents in their house to be on guard because a car has just come round the corner, which does, in fact, stop outside their marks house. When two people get out of it she and Tony just look at each other say "Shit." He then goes on the com telling everyone to move, but ensure that everyone is backing the other up because on site they have got Richie Smith, the man that they had identified as possibly being the leader of the whole operation, and unless it is necessary he is not to be killed and with that he then gives the "Go, go, go" order.

Luckily their takedown is very much a success, but Richie does make an attempt of escaping over the back gate, which doesn't work because as he sees the agents over the other side he tries to climb back down again, literally landing on Tony and Cheri who soon get him subdued, cuffed and put into the car.

When they get the call from Gibbs about how their side of the op had gone, Tony makes the report about Richie, so Gibbs tells them to send him back with the other agents while they grab their stuff from the house, go back to the Navy Yard and head home as Vance has ordered, their debrief, paperwork and interrogations can wait until the morning plus as their reward for capturing Richie the two of them can have his interrogation and can come at it once they've had rest and are feeling a lot more fresher.

As they got back to the Navy Yard and before heading for their cars once again next to Cheri's car they had a little talk, thanking each other again for having each others backs, when all of a sudden she just gets an urge to kiss Tony, as she went to at first just do a gentle kiss on his cheek, she instead went straight for his lips.

At first they started off just tentative, but then she started to find that he was taking charge of getting her to open up more allowing his tongue to explore her mouth as she began the same with him, in the end, they get disturbed by a sound in the parking garage and spring apart with her instantly thinking that the kiss was a mistake, so she just jumps straight into her car and heads for home not hearing Tony's shouts at her to stop.

Back at her apartment Cheri had had a shower and washed her hair, before then putting the washing on of the clothes and things that she had been wearing that was actually hers during the op. As she did it she was still berating herself for kissing Tony in the way that she had done, especially as there was no possible way that he could feel the same way about her, as she knew that ever since the two of them had finally begun to get to know each other, she had been beginning to fall in love with him slowly, and pretending to be that loved up couple together had made a fall even more, especially as she knew that in their more private moments where they weren't being monitored in any way by the teams following them and listening to everything that was happening in the house or while they were in meetings with their marks, was the moments where she was getting the real Tony and not the man that put the big front on in front of everyone else, and that was the man she was falling in love with. As she was putting the washing on and coming across the nightwear that she had been wearing, it set her thoughts off on them faking having sex in case of their marks spying on them, with them being in the house opposite theirs, but the way that the two of them would wake up in each others arms, either with her laying on his chest with his arm around her shoulders or waist and their legs entwined together or with him spooning against her, with his arms around her and pulling her more into him and she realized that it was also in those moments that she was also falling for him more and more, because she did love those moments so much.

After putting the washing on she then got herself a drink while she then decided on whether she was going to be calling for a takeout or if she was going to find some energy and cook herself something to eat, while still berating herself about the kiss with Tony and how she had most probably mucked everything up between the two of them, and how she had probably lost herself a really good friend now and how they were going to manage to work together for the remaining time that she still had with the team, not only that, but how the two of them would still have to get on together once the situation over her team had been sorted out, seeing as she would still be there at the Navy Yard as part of the second MCRT team.

Eventually she was bought out of her reverie by some soft knocking on her door and even though she had already guessed at who it could be, she still headed for the door and sunk down to the ground to lean against it as she heard Tony's voice softly say "Come on Cheri let me in, we need to talk."

At first, she still stayed on the floor not saying a word back, even with him then saying just as quietly "I can't talk to you through this door, we need to talk face to face, and I've even bought food."

She eventually relented and let him in as she heard a light thump on the door, which she then guessed was his head rather than his hand this time, especially as when he spoke this time his voice sounded even closer to the door than it had been before "Please let me in, because I'm not sorry about what happened, I need to tell you that I do feel the same way about you too and I think we need to talk about this."

With his confession she finally relented and got herself up and off the floor, as she then slowly opened the door and invited him in, as he laid the food bags on the side next to them he then took her in another kiss, this time flooding it with more passion than the first kiss that they had both shared earlier and to which she found herself opening up more and more too.

Once the kiss broke he then cupped her cheek as he said "I really liked you from the moment that we met and as time has gone on I have grown to like you even more, I know that all this undercover stuff has pushed things even further for us, but it has made me fall for you all the more, which is why I wish you hadn't run off earlier."

Leaving her slightly gobsmacked he then let go of her a cheek, picking up the food that he had bought he then took it into the kitchen leaving it on the side, as she eventually snapped out of things and followed him into the kitchen, as she watched him doing it she finally cleared her throat and said "So where does this leave us Tony and where do we go with this?"

He then came over to her and laid a hand on her shoulder as he responded: "I want more with you and I would really love for us to be together, but only if you want that too?"

With that she took him in another kiss, this time filled with passion and hunger for him, as the kiss became more insistent she began to start moving the both of them with their lips still locked together towards her bedroom. On the way there their lips only left each other, as they stripped each other of their clothing as they went along, just leaving a trail of that clothing as they chucked it to one side as they went. By the time they had made it to the bedroom, she was just left with her sweat pants and panties on, while he was only left in his jeans, although she had managed to at least along the way get the belt buckle, top button, and the zipper down. As he stripped those off of himself she was taken aback as it was to reveal that he hadn't got anything on underneath those jeans and had gone commando. As he went down on the bedside, he expertly removed her sweat pants and panties from her body and as she stepped out of them, he then pulled her down onto the bed with him and as they then began to take their time in exploring each other's bodies and they built up to making love for their first time, it became less frantic compared to how that moment had begun, as they reveled in every touch and sensation they bought to one another in that moment of passion.

Afterward the two of them just laid in each other's arms for a while before they were both forced out of bed because of their stomachs rumbling with hunger, she put her PJ's on and then while he walked around naked in her apartment, while she slipped some shoes on and a jacket as he said to her that he had actually got some boxers in his go bag that was in the car, so as she was the only one sort of dressed she said that she would go out and get it for him, although as she bought it back in and handed it to him she did make sure that she had a good leer at both sides of his body as he took the bag and disappeared off with it as she said "You know I could just get used to having that sight around my apartment quite often." To which his reply was just a suggestive eyebrow wiggle before he disappeared.

As they then ate their food sitting together on the sofa they talked about their new relationship, which they both agreed that for now they would keep their work and home life separate and keep things quiet from everyone about the two of them. After a few minutes of silence, she then turns around and says "But what should we do about Gibbs?"

In between a mouthful of food he answers "I think that we should make an exception for him for him and tell him before he mentions anything about breaking rule 12 to us, and I don't really want him trying to break us up because of it."

To which she responds "And neither do I."

So with that, the two of them make the agreement that they will make sure that when they get the chance they will tell Gibbs about the two of them being together.

After they had eaten and had thrown out the containers from the take out they returned to the sofa together, and as they laid together beginning a light make-out session, which continued until his insistent hand started to disappear into her PJ bottoms, where after making her groan she whispered against his lips "Lets take this back to bed." He got up and swept her up into his arms and they did do just that.

6


End file.
